Visa Token Service adds 28 new business partners globally

Visa says that 28 new partners will be joining Visa Token Service as credential-on-file (COF) token requestors. These new partners will help make digital transactions more secure by tokenizing both one-time and recurring payments made with Visa credentials.

Tokenization replaces a cardholder’s 16-digit Visa account number with a token that only Visa can unlock, protecting the underlying card number from fraudsters.

In addition to enhancing security, tokenization also helps reduce friction in the payment process, because customers do not have to manually update stored card information if their Visa card is lost, stolen or expires. Instead, financial institutions can automatically update expired or compromised payment credentials. This can reduce missed payments for merchants, and help consumers avoid unwanted late payment fees or charges.

More than two-thirds (69{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}) of US consumers choose to store a card-on-file or have recurring billing set up with merchants. Increasingly, these merchants are choosing tokenization to make their customers’ online shopping and recurring digital payments less susceptible to fraud, with Visa adding more than 150 token requestor partners to Visa Token Service in the last five years.

“Consumers are shifting more rapidly than ever to digital-first commerce, no matter what they’re buying, and tokenization is one of the most effective tools Visa uses to fight fraud and improve the digital payment experience,” comments Ansar Ansari, senior vice president, digital payment products, Visa.

“We’ve seen a fraud reduction rate of 26{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} for digital transactions processed through Visa Token Service compared to traditional online card transactions. That’s impressive, and these new partners will only add to the momentum.”

The expansion of the service comes as the service has achieved rapid growth for its credential-on-file (COF) tokenization efforts, with more merchants and retailers moving to adopt the secure technology. Since the launch of the service in 2014, Visa has added more than 150 global token requestors—including mobile and wearable manufactures, issuer wallets, online merchants, payment service providers and acquirers—from 137 markets onto the token platform. Visa recently announced participants in Visa Token Service (VTS) are estimated to process a combined digital payment volume of $1 trillion, marking a significant opportunity in its efforts to make digital payments more secure.

New partners joining Visa Token Service include acquirer gateway and technology partners Assist, Aurus, BlueSnap, Braspag, Bambora, DPO PayGate, eComCharge, Fat Zebra, eGHL, Infinitium, iPay88, iVeri, LiqPay/PrivatBank, Mail.ru, Moneris, One Inc., Omise, Payture, Payvision, Portmone.com, RBK.Money, Spreedly, Tickets Travel Network EESTI, Tranzzo, walletdoc, WayForPay, Windcave, and Yandex.Money. Once certified, these 28 partners will be able to tokenize credential-on-file digital payments on behalf of their merchant and payment clients for an additional level of security.